Posted by By Adeyinka Adedipe and Chris Garba, Abuja on
THE Flying Eagles team may have been thrown into confusion after the trip to Germany was cancelled because of the team's inability to secure visas for the team.
THE Flying Eagles team may have been thrown into confusion after the trip to Germany was cancelled because of the team's inability to secure visas for the team. The team had been training under Coach Samson Siasia at Temperance Hotel in Ota and were expected to leave for Germany last week.
Facts also emerged yesterday on why the team's trip to was cancelled. The Flying Eagles were expected to travel to Germany last week but were refused entry visa by the German embassy because the Nigeria authorities could not state in clear terms arrangements put in place for the team in Germany.
The Guardian also gathered the outfit, Optimum Sport Management International (OSMI), which packaged the trip could not present the documents that would state among others things, where the team would stay, the number of days it was going to be in the country and the friendly matches it would play while there.
It was on this ground that the German embassy refused the team the visas.
When The Guardian contacted, Siasia on phone, the coach who was apparently disturbed by the development, said his job was purely technical and that it was the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) that would determine when and where the team would travel to for its proposed training tour.
"My job is purely technical and I want to relax and do my job to the best of my ability and leave everything that has to do with administration to the NFA. I am sorry I can not be of help to you but I think everything is upside down", Siasia stated.
When the acting Secretary-General, Fanny Amun, was contacted for clarification on phone, a voice at the other end said Amun could not be reached and was not in a position to say when the Flying Eagles would eventually leave for Europe.
Football enthusiast would be surprised at the turn of event after the football house had assured that the team would be in Germany. Siasia would be wondering what happened to the proposal for the training tour he submitted over three months ago.
Meanwhile, NFA has said that it would now seek visas from the French embassy for the Flying Eagles, following the bungling of the earlier application for visas by the German embassy.
The French Embassy has accepted to issue the team visas and acting Secretary General of the NFA, Fanny Amun said yesterday that the team leave would leave for a new camp in Lens, France, where they would stay until June 7, when they leave for Holland for the FIFA World Youth Championship.